Yakitori Glad – Kaimuki, HI

I love me some good yakiniku. The izakaya style shops that we have in Hawaii are all great! Yakitori Glad opened about 2 years ago and I have heard nothing but great reviews. On a whim, Kristian and I decided to give this place a try without a reservation. First of all, you should make reservations because this place is busy! They were able to squeeze us in because we were a table of 2 and were able to get out before 7pm. Yay! I think the biggest draw for this place is that everything is priced at $3.90. It was kind of funny to see the different cup sizes of the same beer for the same price. The Chinese in me says always buy the biggest size but I know not everyone does. The McDonald’s here in Hawaii sells all their soda sizes for $1 but I try to keep it to the medium size to make myself feel better. 😛 Enough talking, let’s get to the food!!

140216-14Store Front – busy busy busy! The staff are all so awesome though, super nice folks.

140216-01Special menu on the wall. Super cute!

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140216-03Mo-mo Spicy Teriyaki – very good. Nice and moist and the sauce was delicious, not too spicy!

140216-04Buta Bara – one of our favorite dishes of the night. Nicely seasoned and grilled pork. In fact, we ordered one more of this because it was so good!

140216-05Tsukune Cheese – Chicken meatball with melted cheese on top. It was pretty good but I can’t help to compare this to Kohnotori. I don’t remember Kohnotori having a chicken meatball with cheese but their chicken meatball (tsukune) is the best!

140216-06Gyu Kushi – grilled meat. Least favorite of the night, dry and a bit rough. I wouldn’t recommend this one.

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140216-08Kawa Suage – Chicken Skin!! I thought it was okay but it wasn’t seasoned enough. Kohnotori definitely wins in the Chicken Skin category. It’s just too bad they are out of it so often.

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140216-10Tebasaki-shio – Barbeque chicken wings. It was okay, but nothing memorable.

140216-11Ebi Karaage – one of the specials on the wall! Soft shell shrimp fried up karaage style. It was SO good. And yes, the shell/head/tail were all edible!

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140216-13Momo Glad-yaki – this is one of the highlighted dishes on the menu. It was pretty good! Good portions!

How was our experience? Great! I would definitely recommend this place to others! They do have a small parking lot in the back but it is pretty messy to park in. The lot is small and tight. Even with my corolla…I was like…wow how can a bigger car park well in this lot? They have the open lot in back along with a really small parking garage…I didn’t even try to go in the garage. Give them a try! Kristian, feel free to add your comments…it’s been a few weeks!

Three Day Weekend!

Hi guys. Things have finally settled just a bit. Things aren’t completely settled yet but I am a lot less stressed than I was before. This was a crazy week so I was totally stressed. I fell asleep at 8:30 last night…lol. Hope you folks will have a great weekend. Not sure how many of you have all three days off, but have a great weekend either way. I’ll try to work on some posts while I have some time! Today, I just wanted to share the Spinach, Mushroom and Garlic pasta I got from Pizza Hut a few weeks back.  Very good but we all know that the name is deceiving, this ain’t gonna be good for you. 🙂

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Agu Ramen Part 2 – Honolulu, HI

Here’s to second chances!  And here’s proof that second chances work! For my first post on Agu, please go here. For my second visit, I wanted to raise the stakes…and boy did I ever.

140211-01Side Order Gyoza – always necessary. They make these fresh daily, delicious!

140211-02Kotteri Tonkatsu – $11.75

140211-03Spicy Kotteri Tonktasu – Level 5! It is definitely spicy. Not so much when you slurp the noodles but when you drink the soup…watch out!

140211-04Soft boiled egg. Actual soft boiled egg. Thank you Agu for making your eggs RIGHT. Other places are always overcooked.

140211-05So after my second refill of water in my regular cup, our waiter brings me this huge cup. And yes, it was initially full so I was drinking my way through that too…haha, sad yeah?

140211-06I like what they did with the design of the interior! Very different from Da Kitchen, like it a lot!

So what did I think? I LOVED the Kotteri Tonkatsu. My friend let me try her broth and it was SO good. I definitely want to get that the next time I go. The spicy one?  Yup, it was spicy. But I didn’t feel too bad afterwards. But later that night…I paid for it. Horribly. And it’s not the TMI thing you think…I just had major stomach cramps for 2 hours. I do not wish this on anyone. So while I could handle the heat, my body couldn’t afterwards. There’s even an Epic spicy level, I don’t even wanna know how spicy that one is! Give Agu a try! It’s definitely worth it. Our waiter mentioned they plan to extend hours soon so folks can get their late night fix. 🙂

Recipe: Yubu Chobap (Korean Inari Sushi)

I love stopping by Palama Supermarket once in a while at night when they mark down all their hot foods! There was a sushi set leftover once and while I normally wouldn’t have bought it, since it was marked down…I did! It included maki sushi, a cone sushi and some other forgettable roll. The inari sushi took me by complete surprise. While the tofu skin is exactly the same as all cone sushi we eat, the innards was a mixed rice with minced vegetables…it tasted like a savory fried rice. It tasted SO good that I had to find the recipe to make it. I made it for a work meeting and people really enjoyed it! So let me share with you the recipe…

140208-01Yubu Chobap – ready to eat!

140208-02Minced carrots. These were such a chore to do…hahaha

140208-03Minced onions. I cried, of course.

140208-04Rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, chopped small.

140208-05Put the oil in the frying pan and fry up the carrots for about a minute. Afterwards, I pushed the carrots to the side and added the onions to cook.

140208-06After you cook the onions and carrots for about 1-2 minutes, push them aside and add the mushrooms.  The original recipe calls for like bulgogi or some kind of teriyaki meat chopped small too – I didn’t have that and I honestly don’t feel like you need it!

140208-07I add the sauce when I add the mushrooms and cook them altogether. I can almost smell it now as I’m typing this.  It’s good to add the garlic at this point so it doesn’t burn as you cook the mixture…but still cook it long enough to get rid of the raw flavor.

140208-08I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture of this beforehand but when I put the rice in for cooking, I added two medium pieces of dried konbu on top to cook with the rice.  I lightly rinsed the konbu beforehand then cooked it with the rice as you normally would. When the rice is ready (let it stay on the warm setting for a while too) – remove the konbu.  After the mixture is finished cooking, add it to the rice and mix it together!

140208-09You also add some furikake to the rice mixture. I added a salmon furikake mixture and I thought it worked great!

This recipe is winners! I think it’s healthy but still very tasty so people enjoy it very much. The hardest part is just the mincing of veggies but if you’re super lazy, you can use a food processor (lol). So before this recipe, I hadn’t purchased too many bean curd pockets before and didn’t realize how expensive they are! The recipe I am sharing yielded 18-20 very generously filled pockets. Don Quijote has a pretty big selection of it, Times did not. When I visited Palama Supermarket last week, I noticed they sell the bean curd pockets for a good price! Cheaper than both Don Q and Times.  Give this recipe a try and let me know how it goes!

Yubu Chobap (Korean Inari Sushi)
Ingredients:
3 cups rice (medium grain)
1 large piece of konbu (dried kelp), broken into medium pieces (lightly rinsed)
Sauce
2 T soy sauce
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp roasted sesame seeds
Vegetable Mixture
1 tbsp of sesame oil
1 large carrot, minced
1 medium yellow onion, minced
6-8 dried shiitakes; rehydrated, drained, and minced
Splash of shaoxing wine (this is what I used – it’s not typical in this recipe)Furikake – I used salmon furikake
1 package of Bean Curd Pockets (this recipe makes enough for about 20 bean curd pockets)

Preparation:
1. Place rice and water into rice cooker, place pieces of konbu on top and cook. Remove kelp once rice is steamed (feel free to eat the konbu separately, it’s very good for you!).

2. Heat oil in pan on medium high heat. Cook carrots first for about 1-2 minutes, push aside and add onions to cook.  Mix all the vegetables in and create a small well in the middle to saute shiitakes, add sauce mixture to shiitakes after about a minute of frying.  Mix all the vegetables together in the pan and add a splash of shaoxing wine. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool.

3. Mix together the rice, vegetables and furikake.  Fill the bean curd pockets with as much filling as you want! Great served hot or at room temperature.

Original inspiration from: Korean Rice in Bean Curd Pocket by Anna Metcalf (YouTube Video)

 

Hmm…

Hey everyone. I had a few posts planned for this week but there has been some personal family matters that have come up and taken up my time. Still recovering a bit from things especially since they are not exactly resolved. Hoping for the best as much as I can. Hope you all are doing well out there. Did I tell you folks I twisted my ankle last week? lol…it’s been quite a week. My ankle is healing so I don’t walk with a limp now. Still a little weak walking down stairs and definitely can’t wear heels (no complaints here for that!).

Anyhow, I wish everyone all the best and please be safe out there. I leave you with food because that’s just how I do.

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140204-02My favorite dish at Taco Bell – Cantina Bowl. It comes on top of cilantro rice…yummy! I don’t see it on the menu anymore but when I ordered it – they said it was available!

Helena’s Hawaiian Food – Honolulu, HI

Helena’s Hawaiian Food is one of the most popular Hawaiian food joints in Hawaii. It might be controversial to say this, but they’re probably the best? If you don’t agree, feel free to comment on who is…cause I’d be more than happy to try them out! Helena’s is located in my neck of the woods and my first ever visit was two weeks ago. I know, what kind of Kalihi girl am I? Well even after I started hearing more about Helena’s, the lines and horrible parking lot certainly scared me off enough. So how was my experience? Um…magical! Take a look if you don’t believe me!

140202-01We ordered Menu D which includes: Kalua Pig, Lomi Salmon, Pipikaula Short Ribs & Luau Squid with 2 scoops of Rice ($18.40)

140202-03Lomi Salmon

140202-04Kalua Pig

140202-05Luau Squid (my favorite!!!!)

140202-07This set comes with haupia, raw onions and Hawaiian Sea Salt

140202-08Pipikaula Short Ribs

140202-09Yummmmmy – star of the show. Seriously!

140202-02 Lomi Salmon with Raw Fish & Limu – $4.95

140202-06Beef Stew – $3.95

What a great meal! We got here pretty early but not early enough…the parking lot was packed! Luckily, just as we were turning in, someone came out. Score! We had about a 10 minute wait and got right in! The staff are all so friendly. Especially the cashier who is the mother of the owner, super sweet lady. And genuine sweet – I love it. She also adds up your check manually first and then re-calculates it on her calculator. That’s a really good way to keep your mind sharp! I’d love to come back here again, but I will only brave it on a weekday at like opening time. I also got an order of pipikaula short ribs to go to take back to the office. I did share it, but not nearly as much as I should have, hehe…

The Cheesecake Factory – Waikiki, HI

I don’t have to tell you about The Cheesecake Factory do I? Of course I don’t.  I don’t have to tell you that this place is busy all the time with a line stretching across Waikiki. I don’t have to tell you that an hour and a half wait time is normal. So why is this place so popular? Must be the cheesecake. Well, it is mighty good cheesecake. The food is not bad either but it can be a bit pricey. I came for lunch on a weekday and hallelujah, we didn’t have to wait at all. First time ever. Let’s look at the pictures!

140201-01This. is. it. Fresh Strawberry Cheesecake.  Delicious!

140201-02The bread. They usually serve two breads, a sourdough bread and this sweet honey wheat bread. I don’t eat the sourdough so I just asked for all wheat.  Was gooood.

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140201-04Fried Calamari – it comes with a garlic aioli and cocktail sauce.  Delicious!

140201-07Ahi Poke – market price! Umm..market price always scares me. Hahaha but had to get em cause it was a special meal. It was very good and the guest of honor enjoyed it so it was well worth it.

140201-05140201-06Spicy Chicken Chipotle Pasta – Lunch Portion.  I took a chance on this dish, haven’t tried it before and wow was it good!  I could do without the deep fried stick thingies…but the actual pasta was so good.  The vegetables, chicken, sauce and pasta just worked so well together. We were both sooo stuffed at the end of this meal. Great lunch though.

Park in the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center garage and you can get validation when you dine here. Make sure you pay at the parking machines by the elevators before you go to your car. They don’t have live attendants collecting money at the end anymore.